now, dan bal david baldacci, this is your-- >> my 25th. somebody told me the other day. i had not counted the books. when they said it i was surprised. >> schieffer: 25 books you have done. and i'm old enough to remember when you were a lawyer here in washington, and one of my best friends was your law partner in that old law firm. how did you get into this? i mean, what-- >> i had been writing since i was a kid. i was trying to sell short stories to the "new yorker" when i was 14 and realized if i changed my name to j.d. salinger my odds would be considerably improved. i spent 10 years writing short stories, that's what i really love to do. and i liked to read short stories in high school and college but i had no success doing that. i had a family early on, and it was something i kept doing. i went into screen play writing for a while and got an agent in hollywood which is almost impossible because most agents in hollywood i met don't know there is a state called virginia. they don't think anything exists owz of california. and i started writing my first novel "absolute